The history of Transportation - and the Electric car

This attraction can be a source of several school lessons and just a plain old fun day out.  For long trips we stay in a family suite at Red Deer then make an early day of the trip.

Steam engines like this drove the industrial revolution led by Great Britain

Did you know that electric cars were quite popular as an option at the turn of the 20th century?  The museum has a nice collection of exhibits going back to the roots of  private tranportation.  Here is a wonderful steam engine (it really moves).

There are also planes in a separate exhibit.  You can sit with your little explorer and use the controls in a real helicopter - nicely fastened to the floor, of course.

Blurb about the steam engine 

Comparison of engine options - electric, gas or diesel

There are actual examples of the different kinds of engines.

This was Ellie's favourite.

Paige showed a real interest in the solar car.

This is a good opportunity to talk about alternative energy and environmental issues that revolve around fuel choices.

If you have a kid who can handle it here is a great documentary about fuel.

A "Canadian" car?

Ellie scores with Reader Rabbit

This educational title was quite the success story of the day.  Reader Rabbit takes your child on an adventure with a lion in a castle while teaching math, reading and other skills.  Ellie gobbles this up with much enthusiasm.

The software is a bit hard to find - eBay to the rescue.  While fairly inexpensive it uses a Windows 95 bubble within which to run.  This takes a little bit of setup in Windows XP, virtually impossible in Windows 7 or Vista.  We keep an older laptop around for some of our favorite older software titles.  You may also consider a dual boot scenario.

Tints, Shades and the Colour Wheel

Here is a continuation of Paige's progress with her Art classes.  Terri Austin Beech believes in techniques that allow the brain to fill in the blanks of her art so that the observer becomes entwined with the work.

She covers the basics of composition and colour while allowing the students to experiment with techniques in water colour -  it's a good lesson in patience since the actual blends do not reveal themselves until the pieces are dry.

Here are some samples of work Paige has done:

Paige and the Bean Stalk

The sprouting beanstalk - by Paige
(click the picture to see animation)

OK, admit it. There was a time in your life when you actually believed in giants who lived in the sky and the city in the clouds.  And what's wrong with trading your cow for some magic beans?? As a child my conclusions about the sky and space were not too far off - I figured that you could get to the moon with a long enough ladder.  Ah well, great accomplishments must begin somewhere.  Here is a link to a great movie about a boy who dreamed of outer space, built rockets and made it to NASA.

Oh yes, back to the bean stalks.  This project involves the following objectives:

• Grow a plant from a red bean
• Learn about the parts of a growing plant
• Learn about what a plant needs - air, water, sunlight and...

Both Paige and Ellie had a try at growing the plant.  At first Ellie's plant was "winning" and Paige's were all but shrivelled up. Then Paige put some attention into looking after her remaining bean and raised a successful sprout.

Have a look at the album featuring pictures they took while growing the plant.
[Google account needed]

Paige also submits her drawings here showing the parts of the plant at various stages of growth.
[Google account needed]


Learning Objectives:

• Science - plant nutrition and growth
• Link to a great doumentary on the food industry

Teachable moments: Let's build a Robot! We'll call it "Bob"

Another late night, feeling bored.  Hey, wait!  We can build a Robot.

Parts you need:

• A few small servos
• Some batteries or a power supply
• A radio control unit and receiver

First we need to make the gripper so the Robot can pick things up.  Use a hot glue gun (Low temperature, please) and stick together some sponge and popsicle sticks.

Then we stick on the first part of the arm - then the second.  It's like a real arm!

Just for fun we put the whole thing on a spindle so that it can turn. Stick it all to a base of cardboard or foamboard and "VIOLA" - a Robot arm.

We adjusted the remote controller so that the movement of the controls matched the direction of the Robot.

His name is "Bob".  How come robots are always given boys' names?  We dunno but it seemed to fit.
He seems to have a personality. 

Next:  Give him some googly eyes and clothes :)

Playdough sculpture

Paige did this sculpture using Playdoh.  It is sea monster with a long body. It's interesting to see how she visualized the part that would be exposed above the water

Progress with animation tools

Here is an example of animation that Paige did using Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 and Jasc Animator

It shows sketchlines and various frames that are combined to show a cat walking.  Ask her about "Warriors" and you will get an avalanche of discussion on the imaginary social life of cats.

She also has quite a passion for sharks.  Paige, Ellie and Mommy had a great movie time recently where they watched the documentary "Shark Water" - you can go to Paige's blog for more on this topic.  NOTE: some of the pictures are not for the light hearted. Uurgh.

Accomplished artist Terri Austin Beech is currently helping Paige to improve her drawing skills